Majithia arrest: Sukhbir Badal challenges Punjab CM on Saraya Industries row

Chandigarh, June 28 Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Badal on Saturday challenged Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to prove that Saraya Industries Limited, in which senior party leader Bikram Singh Majithia had an inherited share of 11 per cent, had received even Rs 1 in foreign funding from 2007 to the present time.

Rubbishing allegations made in the disproportionate assets case registered against the Akali leader, Badal told the media here: “The only foreign funding received by Saraya Industries was in March 2006, one year before SAD formed government in the state, when it received Rs 35 crore from US-based Clearwater Corporation in exchange for 25 per cent shares in the company. Majithia entered politics only in 2007.”

Badal also asserted that Clearwater Corporation, which had offices in several countries, had invested Rs 50,000 crore globally.

“All money invested by this company through the NBFC in Saraya Industries was done after due clearance from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and approval of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).”

Badal also made it clear that all transactions of Saraya Industries were scrutinised and accepted by the Income Tax Department.

“This clearly proves that claims of an investment of Rs 540 crore into Saraya Industries through foreign funding are absurd and malicious, and being done with the sole purpose of defaming Majithia.”

The former Deputy Chief Minister also clarified that all cash transactions done by Saraya Industries while procuring sugarcane and conducting distillery business had also been scrutinised by the Income Tax Department.

He said Saraya Industries Ltd was a private limited company deemed to be a public limited company and was a different entity from Bikram Majithia and could not be associated with the latter.

“Majithia has no control over the company’s day-to-day functioning.”

Asserting that Chief Minister Mann had pressurized the state DGP to register a case against Majithia because the latter was constantly exposing him and his corrupt and immoral cabinet colleagues, the SAD President said the Chief Minister rang up the DGP on the night of June 24 and threatened to remove him in case he did not register a case against Majithia by the morning.

“Consequently, the DGP wrote to the Vigilance Department to register a case against the Akali leader at 10.40 pm the same night. Subsequently, a disproportionate assets case was registered against Majithia at 4.40 am on June 25.”

Badal maintained that no investigation had been done before registering the case.

“The Vigilance Department did not deem it fit to issue a questionnaire to Majithia, a prerequisite before filing such a case.”

Badal said that an affidavit which the government had submitted to the Supreme Court in 2023, while appealing for cancellation of the regular bail given to Majithia and seeking his custodial interrogation under the NDPS Act, was used verbatim to register this new case against him.

“This was done despite the fact that the Supreme Court rejected the affidavit in April this year and refused to overturn the regular bail given to Majithia by the high court or grant the request for custodial interrogation. The apex court even asked the AAP government to complete the probe in two days, following which it has now taken this new route to engage in political vendetta,” Badal said.

The SAD President also condemned the manner in which retired officers were being used by the AAP government to defame Majithia.

“Former DGP S. Chattopadhyaya is the same person who earlier registered a disproportionate assets case against former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and him, and even travelled to several countries on government expense to find evidence of foreign properties owned by the Badal family. The entire case fell flat due to a lack of any evidence,” he said.

He also retired Enforcement Director Niranjan Singh, who was involved but the Enforcement Directorate, which had given a clean chit to Majithia, was being kept out of the ambit of the case.

The Vigilance Bureau on Wednesday arrested Akali Dal former Minister Majithia from his residence in a posh locality in Amritsar city on charges of laundering more than Rs 540 crore of drug money. A trial court on Thursday sent him to a seven-day Vigilance Bureau custody.

--IANS

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